Lafarge Cement WAPCO Nigeria Plc has hinged the future growth of its business on the current urban housing deficit in the country.
Specifically, the company said the deficit and the need for upgrade of road networks in the country would likely bring about an increase in the demand for its product, thus boosting profitability.
The Chairman of the company, Chief Olusegun Osunkeye, said this in his statement made available to our correspondent on Friday.
He explained that a lot of opportunities were expected to open up in the cement manufacturing industry, adding that the company would tap into such opportunities to boost its business in the coming months.
He said, “The deficit in urban housing stock and the urgent need by government at all levels to upgrade various road networks in the country provides growth opportunities for the cement sector and we will continue to adapt our production and commercial operations to these opportunities to the benefit of our shareholders.
“Our resolve therefore, is to continue to look for opportunities to expand the operations and markets of the company, and we will continue to pursue the introduction of innovative building material products that will help deepen our reach to customers and differentiate us from competition.”
In its results for the year ended December 31, 2012, the company recorded 41 per cent increase in its turnover from N62.502bn in 2011 to N87.965tn in the year under consideration.
Its profit after tax also rose by 70 per cent from N8.6bn the previous year, to N14.712tn in 2012, while its operating profit rose by 98 per cent from N13.252bn the year before to N26.264bn in the year under consideration.
The statement from the company noted that total cement dispatched for the year closed at 2.9 metric tonnes, up by 35 per cent in 2011. It added that the significant increase in cement dispatched resulted from a combination of improved on its older plants and the increased production volume at the new plant in Ewekoro.
Thus, the company recommended a dividend of N1.20 to shareholders for the year under consideration. This amount represents a 60 per cent increase over the 75 kobo per share dividend paid to shareholders at the end of the 2011 financial year.
Osunkeye said, “In order to maximise the return to our shareholders we have as much as cashflow requirements will allow, accelerated the repayment of some of our bank loans in order t minimize interest expense.
“No additional loans were taken in 2012 and the increase in finance rose from N1.7bn in 2011 to N5.4bn in 2012 arose principally from the cessation of capitalisation of financing cost of the new cement and power plant following its inauguration for production at the end of 2011.”